Event Full - Historic Cemeteries of the Catskills and their Ghosts

The Biological Inheritance of Our Catskill Forests

One human generation exists in the Catskills and passes a landscape, forever altered by their presence, on to the next.

The Catskill forest is dense with history. There are plowlines to be found, burial grounds, stone walls and plants (once precious, now feral) — all are ghosts of generations past.

Saturday, October 28, naturalist John Thompson will lead a hike of the Kelly Hollow Loop, and search for traces of past uses of the land and markers of previous human existence. Says Thompson, “The Catskill forests exist as a biological legacy of the people that came before us and that narrative remains in our landscape today.

“We will observe the traces of what our predecessors harvested, what they nurtured, what they protected, and how they used the landscape.

“The Catskills are always changing — it is only through understanding this biological legacy that we will be able to best protect these forests into the future.”

The Loop is 3.3 miles. Max 20 participants. This event is full and no further RSVPs

John Thompson is the Coordinator of the Catskill Regional Species Partnership and has over twenty years of experience collaborating with scientists and land stewards throughout Southeastern New York State promoting science-based management.

John was elected this year as Secretary of the Natural History Section of the Ecological Society of America.